It looks like more people have been paying attention to this than I thought. Too bad the only one ignoring the issue is the Mainstream Media. A petition at Change.org, scolding the Senate and advocating for the addition of a Fifth Tier of benefits has gone viral, and now has more than 26,000 signatures. If you would like to add your name, please go to http://www.change.org/petitions/view/the_99ers_need_a_tier_v_added_to_unemployment_benefits. The sooner the better.

For anyone who thinks the Senate came to the rescue of unemployed Americans this spring, especially the long-term, guess again. In April there was a lot of attention paid to them extending unemployment benefits. However, they did NOT extend benefits by creating a new tier (Tier V), but only extended the filing deadline for already existing tiers to May 20. What this means is anyone who exhausts either their state benefits or one of the tiers before May 2o, may ONLY get another extension. Unless the deadline for that extension is extended, once that tier is exhausted, it is OVER No mas, and I’m not quoting Roberto Duran.

Never mind my feelings about how the Senate doesn’t blink an eye to save Wall Street or Corporations (don’t get me started). What we need now is action, and I am urging anyone who is interested in supporting the backbone of our country — our people — to contact their Senators and Congressional Representative to urge them to do something about this.

At the very least, the filing extension deadline should be extended into fall, but what would really be helpful would be to do that and add a 20week tier, so we can get through this year, still in our homes.

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